Your Own Pectin Recipe

With this pectin recipe, you can make a thickening agent that will help make your jams and jellies a success.

By Jeannine Ansley

| May/June 1980

Our fruit pectin recipe will help you make delicious jams and jellies.PHOTO: FOTOLIA/MARGOT

There's just nothing quite like homemade jam. Whether you
spread it on toast, serve it with steamin' hot pancakes, or
just—as I've been known to do—eat it right off
the spoon when nobody's around, this "personal" sweet stuff
seems to hang on to a lot more of the "fresh fruit" flavor
than the store-bought kind ever does.

However, regardless of how fresh their fruits or berries,
most folks have to use packaged pectin to get their jams
(or jellies) to "set."

What many spread-makers don't know is that the often
unreliable commercial pectin isn't necessary. You can whip
up a batch of your own "jam jeller" in no time!

You see, pectin is a natural substance that's found in one
degree or another in all fruits. Apples and crab apples
contain the richest concentrations of the thickener,
though, so apples form the base of our pectin recipe:

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Fruit Pectin

Wash, but don't peel, about seven large tart apples. Cut
them into pieces and add four cups of water and two
tablespoons of lemon juice. Boil the mixture for 40
minutes, then strain it through a diaper or cheesecloth.
Finally, boil the juice for another 20 minutes, pour it
into sterilized jars, and seal them.

Berry Jam With Fruit Pectin

Clean and crush two quarts of ripe berries (you can use a
sieve to remove the seeds). Put four cups of the mashed
fruit Into a pot, add four cups of honey, and mix the
ingredients together well. Then let the sticky liquid stand
for about an hour.

After the sixty minutes are up, stir in one cup of fruit
pectin and boil the mixture hard for five minutes (be sure
to stir it all the while). Then just remove the jam from
the heat, skim the top, and stir the spread until it's cool
(about five minutes). Pour the finished spread into
sterilized glasses, and seal them with paraffin.

How to Test Fruit Juices for Natural Pectin

Stir one tablespoon of grain alcohol into one teaspoon of
fruit juice. You can use wood or denatured alcohol,
but—if you do—DON'T TASTE 'EM! Wood
alcohol and denatured alcohol are poisons.
[1] Juices that are high in natural pectin will form a lot
of bulky, gelatinous material.
[2] Those with an average pectin content will form a few
pieces of the jelly-like substance.
[3] And juices that are low in pectin content will form
only small, flaky pieces of sediment.

Share your thoughts.

Marie

2/12/2018 2:56:38 PM

Please for the sake of your health, do not boil honey. as it becomes toxic to our bodies. If you feed a bee heated honey it will die. (Please don't try) The research IS out there, but to assist, the basics are: Honey heated to over 40°C (104°F) will act like a toxin in our body. Our blood temp on average, is 37.0 °C (98.6 °F), and so the little finger 'pinky' test should suffice to test any warmed liquid you are adding honey to. For instance, if using honey to sweeten boiled apples, let then cool until they pass the 'pinky' test, and then add the raw honey. Beware too, that much honey on retail shelves is processed and sometimes even pasturised, which involves over heating. This will destroy the enzymes and further, should now not be called 'Raw Honey'. Take photos of the manufacturer's details from jars on shelves, and then ring them to ask if they heat above 40°C (104°F). Best still buy direct from small apiaries, where they indicate they understand such knowledge and have the wisdom to follow it through. If you wish to understand this further, one website I can offer (no connection to me ) is: http://www.ayurvedicyogi.com/honey-ayurvedic-nectar-or-poisin/ Good health to you all, Marie.

Robert

8/10/2015 4:21:34 PM

I like to make my own jams and jellies, but hate using the store bought pectin. This will definitely come in hand!

I would like to process my jam jars instead of sealing with paraffin. If I boil the finished, jarred product for 5 min will my jam still set.....I'm new to the whole preserving thing so just wanted to be sure that I don't ruin my jam.

chrissyl.

1/1/2009 11:01:52 PM

In my experience, do not core the apples. Cook the whole thing once cut up.

Maggie_1

12/19/2008 11:03:28 AM

Do you need to core the apples? I can't find that information anywhere in the recipe.

Barbara Lear

8/10/2008 12:42:58 PM

yIKES!!! Please don't seal with parafin. Jams and jellies need to be "canned". Check latest ball canning book or similar up to date book on home food preservation. Stay safe.

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